BBC News Online has a depressing "what if...and what's more" item: AIDS may help spread of bird flu.
At present, H5N1 cannot pass easily from human to human. It has so far infected around 125 people in South East Asia, but most of these have had close contact with infected birds.
Experts fear that the widespread infection of birds in this region, coupled with the close mixing of birds and people, could lead to the virus evolving to pose a more deadly threat.
But Dr Webster, of St Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, said the key could be when H5N1 reaches East Africa, where HIV/AIDS is rife.
He said experience with immune-compromised cancer patients at his hospital had showed they are unable to clear normal flu virus from their systems, and can shed copies of the virus for weeks.
The same could be expected of AIDS patients coming down with H5N1, he said.
Well, we may not need to wait until H5N1 reaches East Africa. Plenty of people in China, India, and southeast Asia are also HIV positive.
We should also keep in perspective that persons with a vast range of diseases could become collateral damage in a pandemic. Imagine the impact of H5N1 on persons with malaria, TB, diabetes, cancer, or heart disease. Even if they escape falling ill with avian flu (and most probably will escape), routine medical care will be hard to obtain—never mind emergency treatment.
